The Facebook page "Gazeta Globale" published on November 26 an article titled "Have you seen the 'Neighborhood of Political Thieves' 122 white villas that cost up to 1 million".
After fact-checking conducted by hibrid.info, it has been confirmed that this article is fabricated and old, published in 2021 by the dubious portal with Albanian-language content "mynews24hr.com".
Hibrid.info, after research conducted through the automated online fact-checking program "InVID", has managed to find the authentic article published in 2018 by the Albanian portal "Pamfleti.net".
In the article published at the time by "Pamfleti.net", it was about 122 villas near Tirana, which according to this medium, is said to have "there are 122 white villas, with areas ranging from 350 m2 to over 600 m2, purchased with billions of black money, by MPs, ministers, ambassadors, television moderators, media commentators, mistresses of statesmen, prosecutors, judges, customs and tax chiefs, police chiefs, criminals, drug, arms and women traffickers."
However, this article was changed by the dubious portal "mynews24.hr", falsely claiming that it is about a neighborhood near Pristina, and that these houses belong to political figures in Kosovo.
In addition, this dubious portal has falsely claimed that the price for a villa costs up to 1 million euros, while the article published by Pamfleti.net states that its price is 500 thousand euros.
Link to the article published on the dubious portal "mynews24hr.com":
Excerpt from the article published on the dubious portal "mynews24hr.com":
Just 4 kilometers from Pristina, parallel to the road where the minister and director alone stole 52 million euros and were released, the wealthy, made so with the proceeds of crime, state corruption and connections to the mafia world, have created a residential block with luxury villas, where their agallars and servants, of every type, political color and sin, have united and live without a trace of morality.
This residential block, with an area of 226 thousand m2, of which 79 thousand m2 are villas, has been named "The Neighborhood of Political Thieves" and rightly so, since the lowest price for a villa is 1 million euros.
This article was shared on Facebook by the page "Gazeta Globale" which has over 120 thousand followers. (see here)
The authentic article published on December 30, 2018 by the online medium in Albania "Pamfleti.net" can be found here. here.
Hibrid.info has found the photo published in the article by “Pamfleti.net”, which belongs to the “Rolling Hills” neighborhood near Tirana. (see here and here)
Analyze:
The dubious portal "mynews24hr.com" has published an old article from 2018, which was about several villas near Tirana, which according to the medium "Pamfleti.net" belong to Albanian rulers, drug traffickers and various criminals.
However, the dubious portal "mynews24hr.com" has changed the content and title of this article, falsely claiming that it is about a neighborhood near Pristina, and that the villas in this neighborhood belong to Kosovar politicians.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this article as "Fake News".
Reasoning:
The "Fake News" rating is given to media reports that are entirely the product of a medium that itself contains factually incorrect claims or information.
Content that is considered fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and distributed with the intent to misinform the public, i.e., to present a claim that is completely false as fact.